The Dfl1.6bn (e726m) PMA (Pensionfonds Medewerkers Apotheken) pension fund for Dutch pharmacists, based in The Hague, has outsourced almost its entire investment portfolio through an extensive multi-manager structure.
The new multi-manager arrangement has resulted in the appointment of a slew of investment managers to various segregated and mutual fund briefs and follows a recent ALM study, which recommended that the fund up its equity quota by 10% to give an asset mix of 50% equity, 40% bonds and 10% in real estate.
Under the structure the approximately Dfl800m equity assets will be split geographically between Europe, US and global mandates.
The European share will be managed by Instituut voor Beleggingsstrategie, DeltaLloyd, ABN Amro, Kempen and Henderson Investors – with a portion still managed internally.
For US equities the group has appointed T Rowe Price and Robeco, with a further portion kept in-house.
Fortis Investment Management wins the only global equities brief.
For bonds, around Dfl640m will be shared between Lombard Odier, Instituut voor Beleggingsstrategie, DeltaLloyd, ABN Amro and ING Investment Management .
Real estate funds worth around Dfl160m will be split between a number of managers, including AZL Woning and Kantoren, ING Dutch funds (office, residential and retail), Rodamco funds (Europe, North America, UK, Asia and retail Netherlands) and Kempen’s Orange European and global property funds.
Dick Wenting, general manager at the fund, says the multi-manager structure was implemented to enable the fund to get diversification in investment styles, adding: “The reasons for this move are a growing need for performance, consistency of performance and risk management, given a very small investment department with PMA and an investment universe that is growing more internationally and needs more attention – ie, sectors and credits.”

The Stockholm-based and family-owned shipping company Soya has appointed Singer & Friedlander Investment Management (SFIM) for an e15m pan-European large cap portfolio. It is the manager’s first Swedish corporate client and the company’s first non-Swedish fund manager.
“The Swedish market is very difficult to break into but we have been targeting it pro-actively for some time. For us, the mandate is an important step into building our business in the Nordic region,” says Peter Dencik, head of SFIM’s institutional division.
The benchmark for the brief will be FTSE World Europe ex Sweden Total Return index. The manager’s objective is to out-perform it at an average of 2% per year over rolling five-year periods, with an annualised tracking risk of 5-7%.

PGGM, Europe’s second largest pension fund with e50bn assets, has taken a step forward in sustainable investment, awarding an e5.5bn mandate to London-based fund managers Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS).
The socially responsible investment (SRI) mandate will be managed using FIS’s new standalone responsible overlay programme (reo) that until now was only available to those clients with a fund management contract with the firm.
The ‘engagement approach’ of the programme aims to work with the companies invested in to encourage them to improve management attitudes regarding social, environmental and ethical issues and will be applied to PGGM’s in-house managed continental European and passive UK equity assets.
Alfred Kool, director of corporate communications at PGGM in Zeist, says: “Following a review of the SRI offerings on the market, we were in no doubt that Friends Ivory & Sime are in our opinion the leaders in this specialist area and able to meet our specific requirements.”

The Brussels based e515m VKG/CPM pension fund for Belgian doctors, dentists and pharmacists has appointed MFS International to manage an e20m US equity mid-cap growth mandate.
Paul Price at MFS, comments: “ We are delighted to be appointed by such a prestigious European client, our first win in 2001 in continental Europe.
“This win increases our optimism for the rest of the year given our long and consistently strong track record across all US management styles. The expansion of our European marketing campaign in the latter part of 2000 is clearly beginning to pay off.”